Disturbing events are happening with such dizzying speed that it is impossible to keep up with all of them. Indeed, this flood seems to be part of the Kremlin’s strategy to overload everyone’s cognitive system so that no adequate assessment or response can be developed or employed.

The last few days have been especially full of such developments both large and apparently small that are at risk of being ignored as new events push them out of the news cycle. Although it is far from complete, here is a list of ten such reports that must not be ignored or forgotten:

Even Systemic Opposition Parties Not Safe from Police Raids. Police in Makhachkala dispersed an official meeting of the Daghestan regional organization of Just Russia, an indication that the Putin regime is now prepared to go after members of the systemic opposition in much the same way it has pursued the non-systemic groups.

FSB Wants Study of Russian-Language Skills of Baltic Nations and Ukrainians. The FSB has published a tender offer for a study of how well ethnic Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians and Ukrainians speak Russian. The Russian security agency wants it completed by September 2017. Such a study by itself is disturbing: the FSB isn’t supposed to be involved in that kind of foreign affairs activity. But it is even more frightening because of Moscow’s aggressive stance toward the four groups and their countries.

Pro-Moscow Party Formed in Poland. A new pro-Russian political party, “Zmiana” or “Change” has been organized in Poland. Its leaders have backed the Russian Anschluss of Crimea and the actions of the LNR and DNR militants.

Imprisoned Ukrainian Flier Now Near Death. Supporters of Nadiya Savchenko, the Ukrainian pilot held in a Moscow jail and on hunger strike, say that she is now near death and could pass away any time. They have called on the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society to take action to save her.

UN Should Go the Way of the League of Nations, Moscow Commentator Says. As if the Kremlin had not given the world enough reasons to compare what is happening now with what happened in Europe in the 1930s, Anna Shafran, a Moscow commentator, argues that the United Nations has become so politically biased against Russia that it should go the way of the League of Nations, close shop and allow a new and better organization to take its place.

About the Source

Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia. He has served as director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, vice dean for the social sciences and humanities at Audentes University in Tallinn, and a senior research associate at the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu in Estonia. Earlier he has served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

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